The present problems of Iraq are 100% down to our murderous invasion and occupation. The idea that further western bombing will make things better is so deluded as to beggar belief.
I was surprised to find during my Burnes research that the imperialist powers of Britain and Russia were explicitly exploiting Sunni and Shia divisions to further their conquests of Islamic lands as early as the 1830’s. This has been the major tool of the neo-con Middle Eastern gameplan for some time, spreading disunity and crippling war throughout the Middle East, with the hope that this will benefit the interests of Israel.
The peculiar result has been that in general the West is very actively supporting Sunni armies and miscellaneous forces, but in Iraq is supporting the Shia. ISIS – which is heavily backed by the Saudis, who hate al-Maliki – brings this paradox into sharp relief. The current US and UK strategy is to persuade Saudi Arabia to get ISIS to reconcentrate their efforts against Assad, on the understanding they will be allowed to keep the Sunni areas of Iraq (the old neo-con plan of dividing Iraq is firmly back on the agenda).
The BBC News this morning said that ISIS would not be capable of using the billions of dollars of sophisticated western armaments they have captured. I think you will find the Saudis remedy that one quite quickly. It is quite possible we will see some token airstrikes to kill civilians in Mosul, in order to appease Obama’s domestic backers who are never happy if Americans aren’t killing enough people, but only after agreement has been reached with the Saudis that no serious harm will be done – except to the ordinary people neither Obama, the Saudis or al-Maliki care in the least about.
This is all very difficult to follow – I have been getting ISIS confused with IISS
In French it’s EIII. To be honest I m not sure if ISIS is right – these names are western constructs anyway, they don’t call themselves that. Like the whole media “Al Qaida in North Chingford” meme.
True. Some notable families in the Hejaz migrated there to escape Russian Imperialism in the Caucuses.
Craig
You are displaying a very cautious level of cynicism here. The gyroscope of the heart, belief in God itself as sole controller of the universe, cannot be transferred to the sleeve or the T shirt.
Are you suggesting that USUKIS are in heart-felt solidarity with Sunni Islam and willing to create an Islamic state in Iraq as promised to the Saudi/Qatar backed Al Qaida? Is Al Qaida really a regiment of USUKIS military, fighting for the USUKIS goals of religious freedom and free trade across global borders?
I have tried pinching myself out of that utopian dream. Surely it is in fact like your hero Burnes in Afghanistan? The imagination of war-weary US generals and internet UK politicians and the custodians of the Holy sites of Mecca and Madina can all indulge for a second in their own hearts’ dreams.
So let me get this right. We support the Iraq government in the fight against ISIS. We don’t like ISIS, but ISIS is supported by Saudi Arabia who we do like. We don’t like Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but ISIS is also fighting against him. We don’t like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS. So some of our friends support our enemies, some enemies are now our friends, and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies, who we want to lose, but we don’t want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win. If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they could be replaced by people we like even less, and all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who were not actually there until we went in to drive them out. I think I’ve got it.
Guano
Your last sentence exceeded the permitted level of craziness and has been deleted
Richard Alan Jones
Yes, perfect!
Nice one Craig I take it that Assad supporting ISIS is completely absurd .
I heard someone say on Fox News that Assad was supporting ISIS and thought I was hallucinating
Thanks, Craig, for another succinct take on dreadful events. Preparing myself for the inevitable rewriting of history according to the Blairites/Neocons which will follow soon in press and Dweeb-Beeb.
I saw it from that collection of shills Michael Weiss got together and likewise .
Glad to see you’ve adjusted your ridiculous one million ‘body count’ to “our murderous invasion”.
Will you accept that the only way to stop Muslim fanatics killing each other in that part of the world is by murderous secular dictatorship? Because like you I didn’t support the Iraq War, but not for wooly minded liberal reasons.
Nobody spreads the kind of freedom delivered to the Iraqi and Libyan peoples like NATO. Freedom, is a bit like wicked, and taking on a meaning close to the antonym of its original meaning.
Anon,
So a million is ‘ridiculous’ but 650,000+ is OK?
Is that what youre saying?
For a disgusting and fake war 1 death is too many.
What about your last sentence, Craig?
@Anon: It was a million about ten years ago, so its going to be far, far higher by now.
Muslims were living with Muslims reasonably well in Iraq and Iran before the US, with first Margaret Thatcher’s then Tony Blair’s assistance decided to intervene. They intervened to stop a power block developing in the Middle East that would threaten “Western interests”.
It takes a sick kind of pussy to do it but, all that is needed to create a civil war is to send in a few well hidden agent provocateurs to do appalling things to people… chaos will inevitably ensue. It happened in N. Ireland, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, many other places, and its now happening in Ukraine. People aren’t naturally warlike. Muslims are people, just like the rest of us, and subject to the same response when provoked. The only real question is… why do the sick pussies do this?
650,000
I hadn’t heard that one before.
Maybe 649,000, maybe 651,000. Just pluck a figure from thin air.
Iraq Body Count has it as 188,000, perhaps a few more now that Muslims are openly executing Muslims in the street.
When does it end? I reckon IBC will get to 500,000 in five years, which is still 150,000 less than Jives Body Count, the difference being about the same number as some estimate the total, but which is still 500,000 short of Craig Body Count.
I suppose it all depends on whether you include old people dying and Muslim fundamentalists killing Muslims I suppose. Or if you will do anything to make the West look far worse than it actually is.
The western media have been painting the ongoing daily bloodshed in Iraq as in the neighboring Sunni majority Syria, as “civil war. But in reality, what is currently going on in the Middle East is part of Israel’s Yinon Plan or the so-called “Arab Spring”. It is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states. Israeli strategists viewed Iraq as their biggest strategic challenge from an Arab state. This is why Iraq was outlined as the centerpiece to the balkanization of the Middle East and the Arab World. In Iraq, on the basis of the concepts of the Yinon Plan, Israeli strategists have called for the division of Iraq into a Kurdish state and two Arab states, one for Shia Muslims and the other for Sunni Muslims. The first step towards establishing this was a war between Iraq and Iran, which the Yinon Plan discusses.
Failing to destroy the Islamic Republic, the US-Israel went after a weakened Iraq and created an autonomous oil-rich pro-Israeli Sunni Iraqi Kurdistan. Currently, western poodle in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding the Sunni terrorists who has established Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq after defeated by army and Hizbullah in Syria.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/06/12/iraq-civil-war-or-israeli-plan-to-divide-the-country/
Oh my God! It’s now “it was a million about ten years ago”. Just make it up as you go along…
@Anon: 650000 was the number of deaths deduced by a group of medics, and their results were published in The Lancet, probably in 2005. Don’t you believe in science either?
NATO’s Terror Hordes in Iraq a Pretext for Syria Invasion
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/natos-terror-hordes-in-iraq-pretext-for.html
America’s Covert Re-Invasion of Iraq
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/americas-covert-re-invasion-of-iraq.html
The Lancet study was published in October 2006. The exact figure quoted by the researchers was 654,965. Of course the US and UK governments did all they could to debunk the figures.
Peacewisher has gone from 1 million a few minutes ago to 650,000. That’s 350,000 Iraqis he’s playing around with there. And he lectures me on science.
No, I don’t believe something just because it’s written in “The Lancet”. The methodology and conclusions were widely discredited anyhow. That’s how science is done you see. Claim is made, and tested. Dealing with something as vague as the total number of deaths caused by the invasion of Iraq, you can pretty much make up whatever number you want, depending on what you are prepared to include. Depending on your politics.
I was thinking aloud, Anon. It was peer-reviewed, if you realise the implications of that… Glad you might now be able to agree that 650000 in 2006 was a reliable figure, and 1 million at that time Was a speculative figure. Many more deaths in the eight years of instability between then and now probably would have taken it over the million mark.
Anon,
650,000 was the body count in 2006 by The Lancet.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_Iraq_War_casualties
Why are you defending the indefensible?
Back to the current Iraq situation… I don’t think the US planned this! Maybe the UK did? Maybe Russia did? Maybe the Bankers did? I don’t know any more about this than anyone else but I know there was an agreement struck in 2006 between the US army and the Sunni tribe leaders. Maybe that agreement has just run into the buffers? I haven’t followed it at all, just speculating. Maybe someone on here can enlighten us.
Can you tell me what causes of deaths you are including?
Actually, scrub that. Can you tell me what cause of death you are not including?
You see, American soldier shoots an Iraqi civilian. That’s an innocent death caused by the Iraq War. Eleven years later, Muslim fanatic blows up bus load of civilians. Not so sure. Old lady dies of illness that could have been cured in Switzerland. Definitely not.
I think we all know perfectly well what we mean. Look at the violent deaths in Iraq before 2003, and after 2003, right up to present day. The increase over the 2002 level would be those caused by the coalition of the killing. Now let’s move on shall we…
“You see, American soldier shoots an Iraqi civilian. That’s an innocent death caused by the Iraq War.”
What bollocks Anon. The war in Iraq was illegal. The intention was to steal the oil and mineral resources. So if an American soldier shoots an Iraqi civilian it is not innocent at all.
You’ve been contributing to this blog long enough to know that. You just like to be contentious, but it makes you look stupid, which you might not be.
On the lighter side, anyone remember “Between Iraq and a Hard Place?”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IASKNVhps2g